This invention relates to a crop harvesting header including a cutter bar and a reel for controlling movement of the crop in the area over the cutter bar. The reel is rotatable about an axis generally parallel to the cutter bar and has a plurality of reel bats each having reel fingers projecting generally radially outwardly from the reel axis. The reel bats are pivotal each about a respective bat axis parallel to the reel axis so as to vary the angle of the fingers about the bat axis as the reel rotates. The reel co-operates with a cam carried on the header in generally stationary position so that each bat has a crank arm with a cam follower on the crank arm which follows the cam as the reel rotates and causes the required pivotal movement of the bat.
Attention is directed to co-pending application Ser. No. 09/973,469 filed Oct. 10, 2001 and assigned to the same assignees which discloses a header using some of the features as set forth herein, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Some headers of the above type include a reel which has the reel axis fixed relative to the header and particularly the cutter bar. Many of these headers include a cam which is fixed on the end frame of the header and is shaped in a complex non-circular pattern so that the fingers follow a complex non-cylindrical path.
Other headers of this type include a reel which is mounted on reel arms which can raise and lower the reel relative to the cutter bar to provide different conditions for different crops.
The present invention is concerned with headers-including a reel both of the type in which the reel is fixed relative to the cutter bar and of the type in which the reel is mounted on arms which allow the reel to raise and lower relative to the cutter bar.
In the arrangement using a fixed reel carried on a transverse reel shaft, the mounting of the cam also in fixed position on the end frame of the header can be relatively easily obtained. One example is shown in the Macdon Model 912 which provides a cam disk bolted to the end frame. The cam disk provides a receptacle for a cylindrical bearing which supports the reel shaft and holds the reel shaft at a fixed position on the cam disk while allowing some twisting of the shaft in the bearing relative to the disk to accommodate any twisting of the frame of the header which could misalign the shaft. The disk is mounted on the end frame so that it can be rotated about the axis of the shaft to turn the whole finger pattern about the axis of the reel. This arrangement is however unsuitable for the movable type reel mounted on arms.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,809 (Fox et al) assigned to the present applicant is disclosed an arrangement for a movable type reel carried on raisable reel arms in which the movement of the bats is controlled by a rotating ring carried by the reel on the same reel arms but rotating about an axis off-set from the reel axis. In this arrangement, the ring is smaller than the circle described by the assembly of rock shafts otherwise known herein as xe2x80x9cbatsxe2x80x9d and the xe2x80x9cbat circlexe2x80x9d. The ring shown in this patent and in other similar arrangements manufactured by other companies however do not allow any change in the finger tip pattern. The pattern is circular in nature and the rotation of the cam only results in rotating this circular path about the reel center. It is therefore impossible to improve the finger path in either one of the finger path zones. (Crop entry zone, crop lift zone, crop delivery zone, and crop release zone).
The only way to customise or optimise these finger path zones is to use a non-circular cam track where the links from the bats which effect the pivotal action are attached to followers which run in or on the cam track.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,170,244 (Coers et al ) assigned to Deere and Company and in Canadian Application 2,289,164 also by the same inventor is disclosed an arrangement in which the reel is mounted on reel arms and there is provided a cam which is carried also on the reel arms so that it raises and lowers with the reel but it is held at a position so that it does not rotate with the reel and controls the angle of the bats by crank arms and cam followers travelling on the cam.
In this arrangement, the cam track is as large or larger than the reel body and to the end of the finger controlling crank is attached a cam follower bearing which follows in the cam track. The downfall of this style of track is that the track has to co-exist laterally in the same area as the finger rock shaft path (shown on FIG. 3 of the patent) or xe2x80x9cbat circlexe2x80x9d. This causes the endmost finger on the rock shaft, next to the end panel or end sheet to be located at some considerable distance inboard from the said panel causing severe performance problems related to clearing the cutter-bar from crop accumulations in this area. This poor clearing of the cutter-bar causes severe crop loss and poor header performance therefore resulting in lost productivity and profit.
In addition, several attempts have been made in the past to improve the reel performance by adjusting the cam track relative to the reel in a vertical or horizontal fashion. The conventional vertical and horizontal movement of the cam relative to the center reel body changes the finger tip path to improve crop lifting abilities. However it will often cause negative effects in an other area of the finger tip path.
Coers in the above patent makes an attempt to adjust the finger tip path by replacing cam track sections to customize the reel finger tip path to crop conditions. This invention is not practical as the customer has to make time consuming changes and carry an unreasonable amount of varying shapes of cam segments for each crop.
Also adjustment of the pattern by the rotation of the cam of Coers relative to the reel can be made similarly to the rotation of the cam in the above fixed reel type but in Coers the adjustment is made about an axis offset from the cam axis and this has other effects on the pattern which can be disadvantageous.
It is one object of the present invention to provide an improved harvester of the above general type in which the arrangement of the non-circular cam is improved to allow improved placement of the endmost finger.
According to a first aspect, therefore, the cam that controls the finger tip path has been made smaller than other previous designs. Its outside envelope is smaller than a circle depicted by an arc going through each finger rock shaft. This cam allows the finger rock shafts to extend closer to the end panel in order to remove crop from the comer formed by the end panel and the cutter bar which results in a higher header performance, lower crop loss.
The cam shown and described hereinafter has six rock shafts but the invention is not limited to that number. The maximum quantity of rock shafts would be limited by the amount of space required for the linkage. The cam shown depicts a control link that leads the finger rock shaft but the invention is not limited to such. This cam design can work with a rock shaft control link leading or trailing the rock shaft. The arrangement shows a possible linkage to locate the control link but is not limited to such. A various different linkages could be devised to accomplish any variation of the above. While the reel and cam shown can be made to be moved hydraulically fore and aft along the length of the reel support arms with cylinders or other, it is not necessary for this invention.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved harvester of the above general type which allows an improved adjustment of the finger pattern.
According to a second aspect of the invention the cam that has the ability of being rotated on the same center and axis as the reel center tube which results in being able to adjust the finger pattern relative to the header cutter bar without compromising on an optimum finger tip pattern and maintaining a proper engagement of the follower to the track. Previous designs have relied on end panel locations to cam roller alignment because the cam has historically been mounted to end panels. This cam design when mounted on reel support arms needs to follow the axle of the reel as the reel may go out of square with the panels or frame. The pattern can thus be rotated for different crop conditions, that is standing or lodged, on the go without stopping while still providing optimum crop delivery to the canvas on a draper header or auger on an auger platform without affecting the optimum finger tip pattern that has been developed for a particular header (auger or draper platform). This results in higher productivity due to not having to stop for cam adjustments for varying crop conditions, or to replace cam segments. The cam can be adjusted infinitely with a cylinder, electric linear actuator, or, manually through a range of predetermined increments.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved harvester of the above general type allowing an improved adjustment of the finger action.
According to a third aspect, an adjustable crank is provided where the included angle of the finger and the control link can be infinitely adjustable or adjustable in increments to provide more or less crop lifting before the cutter bar for different crop conditions without affecting the overall shape of the finger tip path or pattern. The adjustability of the crank to finger angle as shown has slots to infinitely adjust the angle within a predetermined practical range. The invention is however not restricted to a slotted range and could be done in a number of ways including multiple positions. This is also better that moving the cam location relative to the reel center tube as the optimized finger tip pattern is not compromised, since delivery over the draper and or the auger pan is not compromised and crop entry and lift are also maintained at an optimum shape.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a mounting arrangement for the reel relative to the cam member which ensures that the reel and cam track remain so that the cam track lies in a radial plane of the reel axis while providing an improved mounting of the reel.
According to a fourth aspect of the invention the reel includes at each end a reel support shaft portion lying on the reel axis for supporting the reel for rotation about the reel axis; the cam member includes a reel support member defining a longitudinal support axis with bearings supporting one reel support shaft portion at one end of the reel such that the bearings hold and maintain the shaft portion and the reel axis accurately coaxially With the support axis; the cam member is arranged to hold and maintain the cam track accurately in a radial plane of the support axis so as to hold the cam track in a radial plane of the reel axis; and the cam member is mounted relative to the header frame structure for rotational adjustment movement of the stationary angular location thereof around the longitudinal axis and therefore the reel axis.
The term xe2x80x9cbatxe2x80x9d as used herein is intended to be synonymous with the term xe2x80x9crock shaftxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9ctine tubexe2x80x9d as used herein as all terms are intended to merely refer to the elements on which the reel xe2x80x9cfingersxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9ctinesxe2x80x9d are mounted for pivotal movement about a longitudinal axis of the xe2x80x9cbatxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9crock shaftxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9ctine tubexe2x80x9d without implying that the element is necessarily a shaft or implying that the element is non-circular in cross section.